Data visualization

Why Do We Visualize Quantitative Data?
We visualize quantitative data to perform three fundamental tasks in an effort to achieve three essential goals: These three tasks are so fundamental to data visualization, I’ve long used them to define the term, as follows: Data visualization is the use of visual representations to explore, make sense of, and communicate data.

But why is it that we must sometimes use graphical displays to perform these tasks rather than other forms of representation? Why not always express values as numbers in tables?
The Era of Visual Mediation. Data Visualisation References. Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California, and the county seat of Sacramento County.

It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California’s expansive Central Valley. With a 2009 estimated population of 489,676, it is the sixth-largest city in California.[1] Sacramento is the core cultural and economic center of the Sacramento metropolitan area which includes seven counties; with an estimated population of 2,927,123.[2] Its metropolitan area is the fourth largest in California after the Greater Los Angeles Area, San Francisco Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area as well as the 25th largest in the United States.

A city attaining global status, Sacramento was cited by Time magazine as America’s most ethnically and racially integrated city in 2002. Harvard Data Science. What Does Big Data Look Like? Visualization Is Key for Humans. Image: infocux Technologies/Flickr A simple Google image search on “big data” reveals numerous instances of three dimensional one’s and zero’s, a few explanatory infographics, and even the interface from The Matrix.

So what does “big data” look like, within human comprehension? Ask a CEO of a major company what “big data” is, and they’ll likely describe something akin to a blackbox, the flight recorders on airplanes, or draw a cloud on a whiteboard. Ask a data scientist and you might get an explanation of the 4 V’s, itself an attempt at an infographic (but really just a visual collection of facts) and a corresponding explanation.
Storytelling with Data.

Feb. 28, 2013 This is a condensed version of my opening keynote at the Tapestry Conference, which was held yesterday in Nashville’s beautiful Union Station Hotel.

I’m writing this from memory so at best it will only be an approximation of what I said. Thanks to all the organizers and attendees for a great event. Update: a video of my talk is now available on the Tapestry blog.
Raw. Turning The Absurdity And Hilarity Of Everyday Life Into Charts. A lot of us started highly specific blogs in the late 2000s that have since gone defunct.

Too often, a single joke that seemed funny after a few whiskeys got a bit tired after a few months of basking in our own cleverness. An old personal favorite was Nad Shot. It’s a meticulous collection of comic book characters being struck in the testicles. Nad Shot died a horrible, groin-related death in early 2009.
60 Great Visualizations of 2012. 2012 has been a great year for all kinds of data visualizations.

Data owners are realizing that the best way to communicate the insights buried in their data is by visualizing it. This means there have been tons of great static infographics, motion graphics, and interactive visualizations created this year. We did a roundup of some of the best from each category.
Data Visualization Software. As with much that we’ve talked about in this series of articles, there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to data visualization software.

If you use Excel to create a bar graph or whip up a visualization in Adobe Photoshop, you’re using it as data visualization software. Same goes for vector programs like Adobe Illustrator and OmniGraffle or chart-making with Apple iWork or Microsoft Office. But it’s more likely that you’re looking for data visualization software that’s a little more specialized.
Infographics - The Power of Visual Storytelling. About the Authors Jason LankowCo-founder/CEO Josh RitchieCo-founder/Creative Director Ross CrooksCo-founder/Creative Director.

How to use FF Chartwell. Primarily suitable for Adobe Creative Suite, FF Chartwell for print uses OpenType ligatures to transform strings of numbers automatically into charts.

The data remains in a text box, allowing for easy updates and styling. It’s really simple to use; you just type a series of numbers like: ‘10+13+37+40’, turn on Stylistic Alternates or Stylistic Set 1 and a graph is automatically created. To help get you started using FF Chartwell we’ve created this video tutorial and here are some simple steps: ONE — Firstly always make sure the letter spacing is set to “0” (zero)
Review: Designing Data Visualizations on Datavisualization. In a recent chat with Jérôme Cukier about the state of visualization related literature, he mentioned Julie Steele and Noah Iliinsky’s new book “Designing Data Visualizations” published by O’Reilly.

Jérôme noted that it would be a good primer for people who are already working with data and looking for guidance about making their work more accessible. I thought of another group of people who might find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of choices they have to make while working on visualizations: designers with little knowledge about visual perception and how to apply its’ principles to their work. After reading it from cover to cover in just a few hours I can highly agree with Jérôme’s recommendation.

Julie and Noah manage to introduce the basics of visualization in a very accessible and comprehensible way. Furthermore, the slim format and of the book makes it a great read for your next flight or train ride.
Prints. The Atlas of Economic Complexity. 10 Tips for Designing Better Infographics. Infographics have been around for ages but in recent years they’ve really come into the spotlight as an almost irresistible way to communicate complex scenarios and information. We can’t help it, when we see a link for an infographic, we almost have to check it out!

The Role of Colors in Culture: the Interactive Version. The infographic representing the meanings of different colors in different cultures by David McCandless has been featuring the cover of his book Information is Beautiful. About a year ago, it was also the subject of a visualization critique [PDF] by Stephen Few, in which he remarked its "design failures", and questioned its "integrity" and "usefulness". However, some people seem not to have minded and created an identical diagram, but then with some powerful interactive features added. The visualization Interactive Colours in Culture [zoho.co.uk] thus reveals, among others, how the color red conveys success and good luck in Chinese culture, whereas Westerners connote it to danger. No universal contest exists on the dominant color for 'evil', however.

UPDATE: An interactive version of Stephen Fews' grid view is now available as well.
Recovering from information overload - McKinsey Quarterly - Organization - Talent. For all the benefits of the information technology and communications revolution, it has a well-known dark side: information overload and its close cousin, attention fragmentation. These scourges hit CEOs and their colleagues in the C-suite particularly hard because senior executives so badly need uninterrupted time to synthesize information from many different sources, reflect on its implications for the organization, apply judgment, make trade-offs, and arrive at good decisions.